Secret Worlds (444 page)

The mother rushed to her son, who was crying even louder now, while I bolted for Lucien. I rounded the car to the driver’s side, but when I got there, Lucien was gone. The driver opened his door, and he, too, glanced around for the man he knew he had hit.

I looked up and down the streets. There were several alleys—one in particular drew my attention. It was about one block up and partially concealed by a shipping truck. I jogged over to it.

As I suspected, I found Lucien sitting on a wooden crate with his jacket off. His torn sleeve was pulled up around his bicep and very carefully he was removing shards of glass from his bloodied arm. His wounds healed almost immediately.

I stood in front of him, wishing he knew that I was there and had witnessed what he’d done.

One last large piece of glass protruded from his forearm. He moved to take it out, but his hand stopped and hesitated above it. Instead of removing it, he suddenly slammed his fist on top forcing it deeper into his arm. He threw his head back in pain, but did not cry out. His eyebrows tightened and his jaw muscles bulged.

I stared in horror. I had no idea his self-torture went as far as this. My gaze lowered to the embedded glass in his arm, and I concentrated hard. Using my feelings toward him to invoke magic, I imagined the shard of glass sliding out of his arm. Lucien jumped when he felt it begin to move. I concentrated harder. The glass broke free from his flesh, and I mentally tossed it to the ground.

Lucien glanced around, his expression a mixture of anger and surprise. I was glad. I wanted him to know that someone was watching over him. Hopefully this would make him think twice before he decided to hurt himself again.

It was my turn to be surprised when Lucien, his voice full of hatred, growled, “Leave. Me. Alone.”

“Lucien?” I asked as if he could hear me.

“Leave me now, or I swear I will find you and rip your heart out!”

Frightened by his sudden hostility, I obeyed.

“How was your trip?” I asked Charlie, who seemed surprised to see me waiting for him in his office. After I’d woken from being with Lucien, his office was the only place I wanted to go. Maybe it was where I felt safest.

Charlie dropped his suitcase and removed a black leather jacket. “It was horribly successful.”

“What’s that mean?”

He dropped into his chair as if he was exhausted. “Bad things are happening, Eve.”

“Is this at all connected to the vampire you are searching for?”

“It reeks of him, but I can’t be sure yet. This is the most frustrated I’ve ever been. The one time I really need my gift, it fails me.”

Gently, as if my next words might hurt him, I asked, “What did this vampire do?”

Charlie sunk farther into his chair, if that was possible. Even the color drained from his face. I almost told him to forget it, but then he spoke.

“He killed Moira on our second year anniversary. Left her like a present in our bedroom, my anniversary gift tied to her lifeless hand. You see he was paying me back for a raid on his
house
. We killed six of his newbie vamps, but only after they refused to listen to reason.”

My throat felt like it was in my stomach. “I’m so sorry,” I managed to whisper.

“So am I.” He breathed a few times, the air thick with his sorrow. Finally he said, “You were waiting for me. Did you need something?”

“I just wanted to see how you were.” The words seemed hollow in the heavy room.

He laughed miserably. “Well, now you know.” He closed his eyes like he’d bitten his tongue and then opened them. “I’m sorry. I don’t talk about my wife’s death. Ever. But I think about it every second of the day. I’ll be in a better mood later. Do you want to meet up later tonight to begin your training?”

“Only if you’re up for it,” I said.

“I will be.”

I stood and walked to the door. “I’ll see you then…and Charlie, if you ever need anything, please let me know.”

I left, my heart aching. What was the point of using my abilities for good if I couldn’t help those closest to me? Somehow, I had to find a way to sense exactly what people needed to make them feel happy and at peace. I’d never heard of such a spell, but if magic could destroy faraway places, surely it could do this? I vowed to find a way.

***

I didn’t visit Lucien again. My last encounter made me realize how difficult it was going to be to try and release him from his self-made prison. Before I returned to him, I wanted to ensure I was stronger both mentally and emotionally. Because of this, I worked harder than ever with Dr. Skinner, forcing myself to do things I didn’t think possible. Even he seemed surprised by my progress.

“You don’t need to push yourself so hard, Eve. All of this will come in time.”

But I didn’t have time. Every night, a growing uneasiness gnawed and chewed at my gut, making me physically ill. Something terrible was going to happen to Lucien, and in his current condition, I was afraid he would welcome it.

I used this urgency to train harder with Charlie. He was shocked by how quickly I’d picked up on marital arts, but not as surprised as I was. It came naturally to me as if it was what my magic wanted. It wasn’t long before I was able to predict Charlie’s moves and block his attacks with ease.

“So, tell me again. You’ve never had any lessons?” Charlie asked after getting thrown over my shoulder. I helped him up.

“Nothing formal. I used to imagine I could fight when I was younger.”

“And I used to imagine that I was a dinosaur, but you don’t see that happening. What’s your secret?”

I laughed. “Have you ever thought that maybe I’m not that great and you just really stink?”

“Believe me, I’ve considered that.”

In the corner of the room, I spotted Derek. I’d come to love the teenage boy who followed me around from a distance. I’d often catch him watching me with a look of wonderment on his face. This look always made me feel special somehow.

“One second,” I said to Charlie.

Charlie collapsed to the ground. “Take all the time you need.”

“Don’t get too comfortable,” I called behind me as I jogged over to Derek. I was careful not to touch him when I sat on the floor next to him. “How’s it going, D?”

Derek rocked back and forth. Normally I would leave him alone, giving him the space he required, but there was anxiousness in his eyes.

“What is it, Derek?” I asked.

Instead of speaking, he reached inside a backpack sitting on his other side and removed a shoebox. One of the sides had been cut off, and inside he had created a miniature replica of the Deific office upstairs. I recognized it immediately because of the roses shaped out of crumpled red paper upon all the desks. On the floor of the box, little human figures made out of tin foil were lying down; red marker dotted many of them in the exact location of their hearts. Glued high on the cardboard wall were two men. Over their faces Derek had scribbled a black marker. Directly below them, I saw myself. I was made out of tin with long yellow yarn for hair, and all around me he’d glued thin strips of yellow ribbon like sunrays spreading out.

“What’s that?” Charlie said behind me.

I jumped. “I’m not sure. Derek just handed it to me.”

Charlie crouched down to get a better look. His body tensed. “Something’s wrong. Do you feel it?”

I did feel something but was it was the art project that disturbed me, or something else?

Charlie stood suddenly. “I have to go. I’ll see you upstairs.”

“Do you want some help?” I called after him.

He didn’t answer but raised his hand and waved before he darted out the door.

I turned back toward Derek. “I wish you could tell me what this means. It’s beautiful. I can even tell which one I am.” I reached to touch the top of his head but stopped, remembering his dislike for touching. “Do you want to come upstairs?”

He shook his head vehemently.

“All right. You don’t have to,” I said, startled by his reaction.

Upstairs, Sarah stopped me. “So are you coming tonight? I want you to meet Jesse.”

“Um, probably,” I said. “One sec.” I walked quickly to Charlie’s office, where I found him speaking urgently into the phone.

“Check it again,” he yelled and slammed the receiver down and looked up at me. “We need to get everybody out of here.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but we’re going to be attacked.”

“When?”

“Soon. I can’t tell for sure, but I feel it. My skin is crawling; it’s horrible. We need to get everybody out
now
.”

“Has security noticed anything strange?”

“They said everything’s fine,” Charlie said as he walked out of his office.

I followed. “Do you know who’s going to attack us?”

He stopped and faced me. “That’s the strange thing. Whoever it is, they feel—” he chewed his lip before continuing. “—wrong. Could be vampires, witches, I don’t know. The signal is all messed up.”

I didn’t like the word
wrong
. “I’ll help get everybody out.”

Thumping loudly against the wall with his fist, Charlie announced to the office that they were going to have a practice fire drill. Annoyed sighs and moans filled the air.

“But it’s almost five o’clock!” someone said.

“Can I get coffee while we’re out?” asked Sarah.

“Sure, whatever. Let’s just get going. I’m timing you.” People stood but no one took it seriously. Charlie jogged up and down the aisles trying to hurry them along. “You’re being timed people. Move it!”

Without warning, the lights overhead turned off. Only a little streetlight found its way through the slated blinds, but it wasn’t enough to help us maneuver about the many cubicles.

“Sarah!” Charlie called.

“Yes?” she said, her voice still casual.

“Call security.”

I heard the phone being picked up.

“That’s strange,” Sarah said. “The phone is dead.”

“Eve!” Charlie called, the panic in his voice unmistakable.

“I’m over here,” I said next to Sarah.

“Get everyone into my office and lock the door behind you, do you understand?”

I called out, “Whoever’s still left in here, follow the sounds of my voice if you can’t see me.”

Several people, unknown to me in the darkness, found their way over. I told them to follow the length of the wall until they reached Charlie’s office. Meanwhile, I heard Charlie hurrying around the office opening all the blinds, but the dim, orange streetlights barely reached us.

I tapped Sarah’s shoulder. She had yet to move from her desk as she was on her cell phone talking about the current excitement with a friend. The light from the phone lit up her thrilled face.

“Get off the phone, Sarah,” I said.

She lifted a finger to signal ‘in a minute’. I snatched the phone from her hand and tossed it into the wall. As soon as it hit, there was a loud explosion near the floor’s break room.

“What the hell was that?” Sarah asked.

The silhouette of Charlie’s body slid skillfully over a desk toward me. “Get down!” he yelled and pulled Sarah’s desk on its side and jerked her to the floor next to me. He withdrew two revolvers from within his jacket. A few people who hadn’t quite made it to Charlie’s office began to run. Sarah scrambled after them.

“Go with her, Eve,” Charlie said.

“I’m not leaving you. I can help.”

“It’s too soon. You’ll get yourself killed.”

“I won’t,” I said, wishing I had just told him already about being an immortal. “I’ll be—”

A shrill cry pierced the air behind us, from a direction we weren’t expecting. I turned around, my heart almost beating from my chest. A dark figure of a man was gripping a woman by her neck with one hand high in the air, her legs dangling beneath her.

“Let the killing begin,” he said, and he tossed the woman across the room.

Charlie fired his gun, drilling one bullet after another into the looming figure’s chest. The man’s body jerked, but he kept moving forward with frightening determination. That’s when I knew. He wasn’t a man. He was a vampire.

A sound snapped. Charlie swung his gun around and fired at another vampire. Again the bullets did nothing but slow him down. Charlie stood up and darted across the room, attempting to draw the intruders away from Sarah and me, but only one took the bait.

I gritted my teeth. Two very different kinds of magic inside me fought for control. There was the rush of anger and fear, but also something new—a fierce desire to protect those I cared about. I was afraid to let the new feeling take over, worried it might not be strong enough, but when I saw the nearest vampire pick up Sarah by the hair, I had no doubt which magic would be more powerful. The love for my friend was far stronger.

Mentally, I took hold of a chair and pushed it toward the vampire. It knocked his legs out from under him, and he dropped a still-screaming Sarah. I rushed to her and half-dragged her into Charlie’s office with the others. A few men stood ready to charge out and help fight, but I pushed them back.

“Stay here and get everyone out the fire escape.” I closed the door and turned back around to focus on Sarah’s attacker, but he was gone.

On the other side of the room, Charlie was trying to get out from beneath another vampire. I lifted a paperweight from a desk, and using a combination of strength and magic, threw it at the longhaired vampire. The paperweight hit him directly in the temple, and he fell off Charlie, stunned.

Charlie scrambled toward me. Blood from a deep cut above his eye dripped down his face. He took me by the arm and pulled me toward his office. “You’re getting out of here. Now.”

From above, hiding in a corner, the vampire who had attacked Sarah dropped down. He lunged for me, but Charlie pushed me out of the way and kicked at the vampire, making the vampire stumble back several feet. Charlie quickly removed two wooden daggers from each of his sleeves.

“You came to the wrong office,” he said and swiped at the vampire in a circular motion. He missed but was already swiping with his other hand, so when the vampire moved, Charlie was able to catch the vampire’s shoulder.